The Works：Photographer Kelvin Yuen, Birdy Chu's "Masked Life" & in the studio: Giocoso Trio

We begin the show by venturing to the great outdoors and to the world of landscape photography. Given that Hong Kong is known as one of the world’s most densely populated cities, its relatively unspoilt landscapes are often and easily overlooked and underestimated. For many, it might not seem the most likely place of origin for an award-winning landscape photographer. Of course, we have all stopped to take the occasional landscape photograph, even if only on our phones. But good landscape photography demands more than that. For the dedicated photographer, like Kelvin Yuen, it also takes considerable effort to find the right light, time, vantage point and subject to capture that unforgettable moment.

From landscape photography we are turning to street photography, or at least urban photography. We have been battling the Covid-19 pandemic for a year now. Wearing masks has become part of our daily lives. That has not always gone down well with photographers who like to photograph people on the streets. Photographer Birdy Chu and some of his students at the Department of Media and Communication at the City University of Hong Kong have taken our new normal as their subject, as they show us in the exhibition “Masked Life” at the Goethe-Institut Gallery.

The Giocoso Trio was formed in 2018 by three friends who were studying in Britain’s Royal College of Music. They say the Italian word “giocoso”, which means lively and humorous, is often used as a direction in music, and best describes the kind of music they want to create with the flute, clarinet and piano.